4 Stars for A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is set in Afghanistan from the early 1960s to the early 2000s. It is told from two perspectives. The first is Mariam, a young girl in the 1960s, given away in marriage at fourteen to a much older man named Rasheed. The second perspective is, Laila, who grows up down the street from Rasheed and Mariam. Laila, a young, educated girl from a loving family contrast Mariam’s. For example, Laila can choose her husband and continue her education.

Unfortunately, and due to tragic circumstances, Laila’s and Mariam’s background become the same, one without choice. The theme of women’s rights becomes central to the novel. While the limited choices of Mariam and Laila in Afghanistan minutely compare to my own background which consisted of unlimited educational choices while growing up in the United States; I can still relate on some level.

Being a woman who grew up in the South, where a ‘women’s work’ has often been considered those occupations that didn’t involve a formal education, like housecleaning, child rearing, and husband pleasing, this story had a certain resonation with me. Although my experiences did not consist of the hardships Mariam and Laila faced like having the H double Hockey sticks beat out of me, my experiences did involve circumstances that involve kitchen work, while the men folk watched a dang good baseball game. For the record, I love baseball too! I also love my husband and doing things to help him. Ladies, I still wash his shirts and make sure they are wrinkle free, but on the flip side he responds with things like Friday night sushi.

Despite some strong differences between my background and that of Laila and Mariam, I related these women to very real people in my own life, which is why I found the huge criticism of un-fleshed characterization to be wrong. Mariam’s initial dislike for Laila is easily understood through an older generation of women folk I know that twist the idea of ‘stand by your man’ to mean standing while being beaten, cheated upon, or otherwise disrespected through verbal abuse. Clearly Mariam should have liked Laila and hated Rasheed and a one-dimensional character would have these feelings, a more complex character would not have.

Laila’s dream to be independent reminds me less of a Cinderella stock character and more of Pocahontas. In both Laila and Mariam there is nothing one-dimensional and they are borderline three-dimensional, so I partially agree with The New York Times review describing these women as fairy tale, but it is still unfair simply because the reasons women stay in abusive relationships is never simple, or primary-colored.

Further, this is not a story necessarily about good characterization, like Hosseini’s Kite Runner it is about story, and the mystery behind how these so-called one-dimensional characters can free themselves from nasty circumstance. E.M. Forster’s Aspect of a Novel focuses on the importance of mystery to create a story worth reading. The mystery of how Laila and Mariam’s life turns out is why I kept reading and it is why I highly recommend reading it to others. 

5 Stars for Losing It by Cora Carmack

Losing It by Cora Carmack is a comical, romantic light read for those of us looking for a break from dark, profound classical literature. I teach high school English, so books like The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, and the bloody aftermath of The Odyssey can leave a person begging for some shrapnel of hopeful bliss, ironic, Bliss is the name of the protagonist in the story. She is complete with a Cinderella meet Velma’s Scooby Doo overthinking romantic attitude. “Yes, that is masterful.” – Velma.

I found Bliss charming, a virgin determined, and yet not so willing to lose her V-card to a British guy who reads Shakespeare to her on their first awkward, almost hookup where she leaves Mr. British accent in her bed naked while she runs out on him. The plot line is funny, no not completely original, but still complete and without holes. It didn’t leave me pondering the world, and my place in it, but it did what it was designed to do. The writing was solid for this New Adult strategy, balancing active and passive voice, limited descriptive, except in the steamier moments, and dialogue that resonated with its audience.

The premise is not an original one, but it is one that never grows weary and it has – Spoiler Alert… a happier ending than Romeo and Juliet. Bravo! I recommend Losing It to all ladies, young and old looking for a light romantic story with an edge of steam that will make you laugh and appreciate love without power played Shades of Grey props that seem entirely unnecessary.  

Five Stars for The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. First published in 2003, and fifteen years later with enormous praise from academic colleagues, and well-read family members; I finally read it. It is worth the acclaim. The Kite Runner understands human dynamics and the cowardice often found beneath our motives with an honesty that stings our sense of justice causing us to reflect on our first inclination to cast the first stone.

The protagonist, Amir, carries mixed emotions, because his actions are those of a coward; however, Amir understands the difference between right and wrong. It is this understanding and Amir’s inner cowardice that makes him a dynamic, and beautifully flawed character. Hosseini created an authentic character with a universal understanding that dives into the selfish hearts of all of us and our need to be accepted and loved. This universal thread is transparent in every culture whether you are in white America, Egypt, Greece, Rome, or Afghanistan.

C.S. Lewis makes the point much more pointedly than I do in Mere Christianity, “Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to – whether it was only our family, or your fellow countrymen, or every one. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired.”

It is selfishness and the road to redemption that underlines this book, and it is one we all can relate. Yes, Kite Runner is loaded with foreshadowing, and predictability, but not in how redemption is achieved, at least not until the very end after the reader walks for years alongside of Amir. Oddly, Amir’s salvation and grace remind me of a very different kind of writer, and an old favorite of mine, Flannery O’Connor who achieves redemption in grotesque, and often murderous characters with a hint of dark humor. Her method, although different, is much the same.

Now about that foreshadowing, much of the criticism relating to The Kite Runner lashes out at foreshadowing. In my reading, I’ve come across two different kinds of foreshadowing: 1) direct and 2) indirect. Hosseini takes the direct approach, which for some reviewers may seem irksome. An example would be, "I thought of the life I had lived until the winter of 1975 came along and changed everything."

I want to know what happens in the winter of 1975. Slowly the reader realizes certain people and events shape this, but eventually the horrific outcome pressed against my soul making the foreshadowing obsolete, and a deeper search of myself the most important pressing matter. Further, foreshadowing, direct, is one used by the greats of literature, Shakespeare’s prologue to Romeo and Juliet is a flashing neon lights sign defining predictability. Again, it is the ‘how’ that guides you through the literature.

Homer’s Odyssey is another example, the song of the muse conveys Odysseus’s treacherous journey. Specifics of Odysseus’s journey are further foreshadowed by Circe, the witch goddess’s warning to Odysseus and his men. The prophecy of Tiresias tells of Odysseus’s return home, broken with no more than his wit to win.

The Great Gatsby, although, twisted with surprise, the elements of indirect foreshadowing are transparent once the end is revealed. The point is whether a story is predictable or surprising, it is the journey we should read for, the one that makes us examine our self at the end forgiving a character we may not have liked much throughout. The devastation Amir felt at the end of the story was justified in my mind, and my forgiveness came willingly because of this.

Journey and plot go together in this much like a Thomas Cole painting picturesque of light, nature and inner solitude. The story takes flight with a kite in the winter of 1975 with the need to be loved and accepted, and it ends years later with the willingness to love someone else, selfishness sliding away like a faded memory.

A critic once said, “This is the sort of book White America reads to feel wordly.” Maybe this is true for some. I cannot speak for all readers, but after reading a book set in Afghanistan before the communist and Taliban; it doesn’t make me worldlier; however, it does make me understand the universal need for love and acceptance that often motivates all of us into selfish action, and the similar journey we all take towards attornment. I highly recommend Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.